Readers Respond: What Makes A Great Crab Cake?

No Two Are Alike

August 17, 2005|By Prue Salasky, psalasky@dailypress.com | 247-4784

Get your claws on various versions of this local specialty

Luscious melt-in-the-mouth crab cakes are the hallmark of seafood dining at restaurants throughout the region. Meat from the blue crab -- now often farm-raised Asian imitators rather than the native callinectes sapidus from the Chesapeake Bay -- is at the heart of this area's specialty dish. Variations on the simple dish result from the use of different grades of crabmeat, its seasoning, the bindings and fillers employed and the cooking style.

Our call to readers to nominate the area's finest crab cakes opened the floodgates. In all, nearly 200 people told us about more than 50 restaurants, cafes -- and even vans -- where the crab cakes are the sirens' lure for customers. We couldn't taste them all and it didn't seem fair to put $4 versions up against $20 extravaganzas (prices are subject to change due to seasonal supply and demand). So, we've listed every place recommended and we're sharing some of the comments and praise.

And we've dissected a few to let you know what goes into the making of the different styles. Consider that some diners like them moist, some crispy; some like to taste only crabmeat, others enjoy the zip of additional spices; some favor hearty, dense versions, while others prefer the rounds light and fluffy. However you like your crab cakes, there's one for every taste and pocketbook.

More than 30 readers recommended the crab cakes at The Surf Rider restaurant on the waterfront in Hampton. One of five outlets in Hampton Roads owned by the Bennett family, the restaurant specializes in broiled crab cakes served in sandwiches and in platters. The lightly spiced cakes, almost free of filler, burst with a mixture of chunks of jumbo lump and lump crabmeat in a creamy sauce. (Depending on the season, the crabmeat is either a mix of local and imported or entirely imported.) The restaurants switched from a breaded, grilled hamburger patty-style cake a few years ago. Co-owner Chris

Bennett credits a local fisherman with their current recipe that requires only a little crushed cracker as filler to broil it and give a brown finish. "There's not enough stuff in there to hold it together if you were to fry it," says manager Tracy Lesage. The style is moist, meaty and plain. The prices, $8.25 for a sandwich, and $10.99 for a single crab cake, fall in the mid-range.

Several of the most popular crab cakes with readers follow a similar format; many are clustered in Newport News. At Schlesinger's Chophouse in Port Warwick, a 4-ounce cake ($11.95 for a lunch sandwich, $24.95 for a two-cake dinner) is made with a mix of jumbo lump and lump crab from the Northern Neck; the simple mix of mayonnaise, lemon, Worcestershire sauce, eggs and spices is only served broiled.

At the Crab Shack Seafood Restaurant at the foot of the James River Bridge, 6-ounce crab cakes, made from local lump crabmeat, are served broiled or fried ($9.50 for a sandwich platter; $18.95 for a two-crab cake dinner.) The cakes are free of bread filler and flavored with a seasoning blend that can be adapted to customer request. At Mike's Place, chef Tommy Jones uses local lump crabmeat from Forrest Seafood in Poquoson, blended with a spicier-than-most combination of mustard, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce, in 4 to 5-ounce cakes ($8.95 sandwich; $15.95 two-crab cake dinner). Though he'll serve them sauteed, grilled or blackened, the most popular versions are broiled and fried. The Town Center Cafe, which one enthusiastic reader endorsed for its "better than Baltimore" crab cakes, wild jumbo lump crab from Florida forms the basis. It breaks the mold with a cake that is battered with Italian breading and pan- seared in olive oil. (A 6-ounce sandwich is $8.95; two-crab cake dinner $18.95).

For a crispy-coated fried result, Smithfield Station on the waterfront in Smithfield drew raves for its house specialty crab cakes made from the owners' recipe. The chunks of lump backfin crabmeat are held together with an Imperial sauce and fried in soybean oil for an attractive, crunchy finish. (Though Imperial sauces can differ, the standard version includes green pepper and pimento, mayonnaise and egg, all spiced with Worcestershire sauce, mustard and hot pepper sauce.) The 4-ounce sandwich costs $9.95. As one endorsement, from Shirley Bever, read, "The cakes are fried to a golden brown, slightly crunchy on the outside, and filled with moist, flavorful crabmeat with no fillers."

James Johnson employs a different style altogether in his 4-ounce crab cake sandwich ($6), made from local blue crab -- "It takes too much to get the flavor from imported" -- using a family recipe. He grills the cake with a little oil in a patty maker. His van, Johnson's Kitchen, serves the sandwich on Main Street in West Point from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. "There is hardly any breading to speak of, just tasty crab meat -- definitely the best and worth the drive," writes L. Ann Cary, among several admirers.